The 41-inch center panel of this quilt is appliqued with floral block-printed furnishing fabrics. Along each side of the center panel is a pyramid of alternating 7-inch print and white triangles, with the corners filled with print and white triangles set in diagonal rows. This complex design creates a kaleidoscope effect. It is framed by a 4 ½-inch floral print border. The quilt has a cotton lining, thin cotton fiber filling, and is quilted at 8 stitches/inch. The fabrics represent a wide variety of block and roller-printed designs from the period.
Virginia Ivey designed this white-work quilt to capture the excitement and lively interest of a county fairground in the mid-nineteenth century. The center circle, 40 inches in diameter, is edged by a board fence complete with gate. Inside the fence is the quilted inscription: "1856 A REPRESENTATION OF THE FAIR GROUND NEAR RUSSELLVILLE KENTUCKY." The central judges' pavilion with the judges, encircled by horses and riders, fair buildings and workers, animals of all sorts, and of course the fairgoers themselves, all in a state of arrested motion, contribute to the unique design.
Virginia Ivey's needlework and artistic skills resulted in a quilt that depicts the smallest details of fence rail, walking stick and saddle, or men shaking hands in greeting. The surface outline was quilted using two layers of fine white cotton with a thin cotton fiber filling, stitched through all three layers. The sculpted effect of the design was achieved with stuffed and corded quilting techniques and grounded with stippling, 12 stitches to the inch. The quilt is finished with a 4½-inch woven and knotted cotton fringe. Her needlework is often described as using needle and thread much like another artist might use pen or brush.
Virginia Mason Ivey was born on October 26, 1828 in Tennessee. She was the daughter of Mourning Mason and Capt. David Ivey, a farmer and soldier in the War of 1812. According to family information her father named her after his native state. When Virginia was a young child the family moved to Keysburg, a small town in Logan County, Kentucky. Aunt Jennie, as she was known to the family, according to her niece Ida B. Lewis, "never had any lessons in art-just-her own talent and creative instinct. She loved beauty in many forms and had a most attractive personality and was quite a pretty woman." Virginia Ivey never married and when she died she left this quilt to her niece, Lillian Virginia Lewis.
"I have a quilt which I value most highly. It was made by my aunt, Virginia M. Ivey. I cannot care for it much longer and I should like very much to know that it will have excellent care and that it will give pleasure to many people who will appreciate its remarkable workmanship and its great beauty". So wrote Lillian V. Lewis about the quilt she donated to the Museum in 1949. Now over 150 years old, this elaborate example of white-work quilting, "A REPRESENTATION OF THE FAIR GROUND NEAR RUSSELLVILLE KENTUCKY 1856," has been exhibited at fairs and museums and has won many prizes.
Sampler - Minnesota Territory; 1857, Jane Frazier, "The Prairie is My Home," village of Wheatland, Rice County, Minnesota Territory.
This is a small, simple marking sampler, stitched in wool threads on a loose basket-weave ground cloth (the sampler is framed so the fiber content of the ground is not known). Measuring 5 7/8 x 8 7/8 inches by sight, it is mounted in an old frame, probably later than the sampler. It consists of an ABC set, the inscription “Jane Frazier, Village of Wheatland, Territory of Minnesota” and the phrase, "The prairie is my home" at bottom. This small sampler was created just before admission of Minnesota to the Union, which occurred on 5/11/1858. Rice County was formed by the MN Territorial Legislature on 3/5/1853. There were about 70 settlers living in Wheatland, also called the “Scotch Settlement,” by 1858. The Scots and Czechs appear to have been the first settlers, followed by French-Canadian and Irish.
Preliminary genealogical research has not yet identified the maker. Joseph J. Frazier (also Frazer), one of the earliest settlers of Rice County, Minnesota Territory who arrived there in 1855 but did not file a land claim until January 1857, is identified in early histories of the county as a “half-breed” with a Scots father. His wife’s name was Jane, but according to one source they did not marry until 1861, at which date Joseph was in his late 50s. The date, when examined, does not appear to have been reworked at all – it is original to the rest of the stitching. It is possible that Jane Frazier was indeed Joseph’s wife, and stitched the year that she arrived in Wheatland County and not the year she completed the sampler, but this is supposition, and apparently there were other Scots settlers in the county, so there may have been more than one Jane Frazier. Joseph died 23 Feb 1869; his wife remarried, to one Eli Clouthier (also Cloutier), whose brother John also settled in Rice County between 1856 and 1857.
Territory samplers are uncommon. The Minnesota Historical Society possesses a very small sampler collection; the ones actually stitched in Minnesota all post-date the Civil War.
